Press Releases

Mobile Advertising Spend Soars To More Than 20 Percent On Rubicon Project’s Platform

June 19, 2015

Technology Leader Now “One of The World’s Largest Independent Advertising Automation Solutions for Mobile”; Two-­Year Focus Grows Mobile Offering by More Than 1,300%

Los Angeles ­- June 19, 2015 – ­​R​ubicon Project​ (NYSE: RUBI), a global technology provider leading the automation of advertising, disclosed today for the first time the success of its two­-year initiative to automate the buying and selling of premium advertising inventory, at scale, across the mobile marketplace.

The technology leader announced that managed revenue attributable to its mobile offering surged more than 1,300 percent between the first quarter of 2013 and the first quarter of 2015. Mobile now accounts for more than 20 percent of the company’s total managed revenue, up from less than 3 percent just two years ago. The company expects its mobile managed revenue to surpass $200 million for fiscal 2015.

“In less than two years, Rubicon Project has become one of the largest independent advertising automation solutions for mobile and a clear leader in important categories such as RTB and emerging areas such as mobile native,” said Gregory R. Raifman, President, Rubicon Project. “This is an incredibly exciting time to be leading the automation of advertising and we see even greater opportunities ahead.”

“Today, Rubicon Project offers the largest independent advertising automation solution for buying and selling premium inventory on mobile,” commented Joe Prusz, Head of Mobile, Rubicon Project. “The infrastructure we have built provides brands, media buyers, content publishers and app developers what they want ­­ one cross­platform solution that enables them to buy or sell any ad unit, on any platform, on any device, anywhere.”

“Two years ago we recognized a significant opportunity existed on the mobile distribution channel for Rubicon Project,” Prusz continued. “The infrastructure necessary to enable mobile ads to be bought and sold automatically – the same way they are on desktop – simply did not exist. Over the last two years, we have been tackling that complicated endeavor with a clear mission to scale the mobile market for automation for the entire industry.”

Rubicon Project’s critical mass of the world’s most premium media sellers (more than 60 percent of the comScore 100 in the US) uniquely positioned the company to help drive the evolution to mobile at scale. Today, more than 70 percent of US comScore 1,000 sellers who use Rubicon Project to power the sale of desktop inventory now also use Rubicon Project to sell mobile. Every part of its mobile solution grew, with triple digit growth rates year­over­year across operating systems (iOS and Android) and across inventory (mobile application and mobile web were both up over 250 percent year­over­year).

Publishers and application developers have embraced Rubicon Project’s approach to innovating the mobile marketplace. Inventory on more than 17,000 applications is available through the company’s mobile exchange – a 1,900 percent increase in less than six months. In addition, the company shared that more DSPs had already plugged into the Rubicon Project mobile marketplace than almost all mobile­first alternatives.

“Rubicon Project provides superior visibility and a very flexible platform for our programmatic advertising business,” commented Evan Woock, National Sales Manager, Pinger. “In addition, Rubicon Project’s mobile native technology will enable us to focus on integrating advertising into all aspects of our products and create seamless experiences for the more than 100 million consumers who use our apps. From open market optimization to private exchanges, Rubicon Project’s variety of monetization options keep us far ahead of the game in automated advertising.”

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-­looking statements, including statements relating to Rubicon Project’s expectations regarding 2015 mobile managed revenue and opportunities for future growth. Forward-­looking statements are not guarantees of future performance; they reflect Rubicon Project’s current views with respect to future events and are based on assumptions and estimates and subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from expectations or results projected or implied by forward­-looking statements.

The mobile advertising market is growing and changing quickly, and technological, market, or regulatory developments could render Rubicon Project’s solutions less competitive. Growth depends upon Rubicon Project’s ability to attract and retain buyers and sellers and increase business with them. Buyers and sellers are free to direct their spending and inventory to competing sources of inventory and demand, and large competitors with direct mobile user relationships may provide more compelling solutions than Rubicon Project. Most of the application providers selling inventory through Rubicon Project’s platform utilize SDKs and other proprietary technology of third parties through which Rubicon Project makes its platform available to the application providers. Termination or diminution of those relationships could result in rapid and significant reduction of the amount of mobile inventory available through Rubicon Project’s platform, which in turn would adversely affect Rubicon Project’s mobile managed revenue and growth prospects.

Many of these risks and additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by Rubicon Project’s forward­-looking statements are discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” and “Management Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Rubicon Project’s periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Quarterly Report on Form 10­Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2015. Additional information will also be set forth in other filings Rubicon Project makes from time to time with the SEC, including its Quarterly Report on Form 10­Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2015. Also, these forward­-looking statements represent estimates and assumptions only as of the date of this press release, and Rubicon Project assumes no obligation to update any of these forward­-looking statements, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated, to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the statements are made. Given these uncertainties, investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.